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The Dispatch wrote
Horse-drawn carriage rides return to Downtown
Friday, August 1, 2008
BY MORGAN DAY
Horse-drawn carriages once again are awaiting passengers for travel through the streets of Downtown. “We’re rolling the dice, hoping that customers show up and are willing to take rides,” said Terry Adkins, who with his wife operates Willow Wind Carriage and Limo Service.
The public rides began two weeks ago and are offered from 8 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. Each ride begins in front of the Max & Erma’s on Nationwide Boulevard and lasts about 25 minutes. The cost is $50 for two adults and $5 for each additional adult. Kids 15 or younger ride free with an adult.
Well, thank God. At least somebody’s doing something about the lack of public transportation in Columbus.
But does Max & Erma’s valet so I can get out my car and into the carriage?
But @ $50 a ride, won’t someone think of the neighborhoods!
Just don’t tip the horses with beef-a-reeno
word. why not. they’re funny.
that’s exactly what i want to do, pay $50 to see a bunch of parking garages. couldn’t they have picked a better route than that.
:lol: +3
So the article mostly talks about safety issues involving carriages and I assume automobiles colliding with them. So the city restricted their use for less collisions. That is so ass backwards, why don’t they make is safer for a non automobile to exist and be? They basically say that cars are immune to any restrictions or consequences of their actions. Geez.
Well I am glad that we are getting some alternative transportation in town. But I wonder what will happen when I ride through a pile of horse shit. ??
$50 is way too much money too. The ride better be an hour long at that rate. Plus I really think they would do better by touring German Village, Bryden/OTE, or something scenic/historic. Downtown is not scenic for the most part.
I have given some pedicab tours in the past, its pretty fun.
This part at the end just made me wonder WTF? “Oh yeah, it came from my stables, my personal stables.” Your very own stables! Oh my!
Oh the Dispatch!
does anybody know how $50 compares to carriage rides in other cities? i’ve got to admit i had a bit of sticker shock.
I was going to make a joke about the soaring price of oats, but instead I did a little googling and it sounds like $50 gets you 30-45 minutes in a carriage in the larger US cities. I’m not sure how many mid-size cities similar to Columbus offer a service like this.
I think $35 for a 30 minute ride in Columbus sounds fair. I guess their prices will be course corrected by the market if $50 isn’t getting them any business.
By the way, does anyone know if it’s proper etiquette to tip your carriage driver?
Zach, it’s the same reason we have “Watch for turning vehicles” signs at nearly every major intersection downtown. It’s not like motorists should be expected to yield to pedestrians.
There are also signs downtown for cars to watch for pedestrians in crosswalks, and to yield to crosswalks. All of those signs are there for safety reasons. Everyone needs to be aware of their surroundings, no matter what mode of transportation they are currently using.
I find the signs to watch for cars far more prevalent than I do anything reminding cars. I’ll keep an eye out next time I am wandering around downtown, I may be wrong.
Horse-drawn carriages on Nationwide highway? That alone doesn’t sound good, aside from fast traffic whizzing around these carriages, I know this will affect my route at some point, since you have to use Nationwide if you want to avoid most of this stretch of High. I don’t understand why they’d have this Downtown unless they’re going to cover the Arena District, North Market area and then head off to the Short North. Until we have several versions of Gay St all connecting to each other (which should be the city’s goal for revitalization), carriage rides in Downtown-only make no sense.
The ‘watch for turning vehicles’ signs are intended for pedestrian viewing and aren’t as easy to see by car, same with the signs intended for motorists. The former were installed in response to local leaders asking that city traffic engineers eliminate right turns on red at high-ped intersections. Not what those leaders had in mind, I’m sure.
City council adopted a Complete Streets resolution July 28, Walker posted it last week but it received no favorable comments. Surprised me, I expected broader support from the bicycling community.
p.s. to Zach: Carriage horses are bagged.
I didn’t even see the Complete Streets bit. There was a thread the got revived about the complete streets proposal. Is that the one you are thinking of?
Walker, I do see the “Yield to Pedestrians”, though visibility is poor. I’m thinking more of the ones that are physically in the road way, bright yellow with a “STOP” and mentioning state law in regards to pedestrian. I believe there are a few around Grant area and I know Easton is a great place to see them.
ETA
Found what Roy referred to in the City Council highlights that walker posts. Complete Streets is not official, the resolution has merely been introduced and put up for study. I think the minute we have a “Complete Streets” policy it will be front page here, CB and a number of local blogs.
I was in one of those coming out of Children’s Hospital I think on 18th and someone just blew past me, ignoring the signs. Some people are just complete idiots and I would rather there be plenty of warning to pedestrians than pedestrians just blindly walking out into crosswalks because they have the right of way.
The Complete Streets resolution was unanimously passed by city council on July 28, 2008.
Yep. Was posted here to revive the thread about it:
http://www.columbusunderground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10900
I’d like to be excited about the city adopting complete streets, but while the city can throw $? at repaving Broad and $30 million for a 2nd bridge to Franklinton that will only be one block away for the entire length of the Main St bridge, they won’t even change the light pattern on Front St, which is a bike route.
I’ve been riding my bike everyday for transportation, so you can imagine why I’m not thrilled when I cross a freshly paved Broad St only to go up Front St which received $0/no improvements to make it better for anyone not in a car. Sure it beats High even in its current (deplorable) state, but you better pedal your ass off when cars are going 35+ MPH since you want to match the speed of traffic as best you can and I am almost always the lone cyclist on this stretch (not so on Gay St), because even though biking properly minimizes your risks fast cars do not make you feel safe. I don’t see Mr. Lewis or anyone else from the transportation division biking these routes and if they had to before putting those “bike route” signs up as a joke I think we’d have a much more-bike-friendly bike routes on Front St and High St Downtown.
According to the city, these are the results of converting Gay into a two-way street:
pedestrian safety, improve traffic calming and enhance neighborhood
livability.
Construction Cost: $6,424,843.
The $30 million bridge will do none of that and what purposes there would be, the Main St bridge will already fill all of those. For that amount we could convert 3-5 streets, particularly all of Front and Main Downtown now (along with Washington just south of Broad, very bumpy and cracked in contrast to Broad) and have money left over for other similar treatments. However, the fact of the matter is that despite what is being said more money is being spent for a car-friendly Downtown than a people-friendly one.
Yep. Was posted here to revive the thread about it:
http://www.columbusunderground.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10900
That was pretty buried in there. Can’t believe I missed it. And I was one of the more active ones in that thread, of late. :oops:
As for the horses, why not around Goodale Park? I agree with the idea that the slated area isn’t the best option.